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This study aimed at investigating if attitudes toward children with neuropsychiatric disorders influence evaluations concerning allegations of child sexual abuse. Law students (n = 107) at Stockholm University, Sweden, were presented a transcript of a mock police interview with a girl, 11 years of age. This interview was based on a real case, selected as a “typical” example from these years concerning contributions from the interviewer and the alleged victim. After having read the transcript, the students responded to a questionnaire concerning degree of credibility, if the girl talked about events that had really occurred, richness of details, and if the narrations were considered truthful and age-adequate. Fifty-four of the students were also told that the girl had been given the diagnoses of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and Asperger syndrome. Students who were informed about the diagnoses gave significantly lower scores concerning credibility of the interviewee. To a lesser degree they regarded her narrations as expressions of what had really occurred and considered her statements less truthful. Furthermore, they found that the narrations contained fewer details. Finally, they found the girl less competent to tell about abuse. We conclude that a neuropsychiatric disorder may infer risks of unjustified skeptical attitudes concerning trustworthiness and cognitive capacity.

Society’s responsibility to protect children from harm as prescribed by the UN Child Convention raises complex questions about the fundamental rights of both children and parents, as well as when and how authorities are to intervene in order to protect children from maltreatment. Many child protection systems around the world attract considerable criticism, due in part to how the law responds to child protection matters. This article examines the Swedish child protection system from a critical legal perspective with the ideas conveyed within Therapeutic Jurisprudence as a theoretical starting point. The aim is to describe and analyze the legal challenges and dilemmas that meet this system. A legal ambiguity about when and how responsible authorities are to intervene, leading to significant uncertainty for both children and parents, is identified. Furthermore, the strong focus by Swedish authorities on voluntary measures to resolve child protection matters can lead to vulnerable children not receiving the protection to which they are entitled. Certain of the challenges and dilemmas described here are specific to the Swedish system due to its legal context and family support approach. However, other aspects resonate across legal systems and therefore may be of a more general interest.

This article discusses the need for specialized courts within the field of child protection in Sweden. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has recently pronounced that the signatory states to the Child Convention are to consider the establishment of specialized courts to handle such cases. Consequently, as a signatory state, a discussion of this is necessary in Sweden, where general administrative courts, without requirements of specific knowledge or experience, review and decide child protection cases. The overall aim of this article is to raise the legal issues that need to be analyzed and considered in order to properly evaluate whether such specialized children’s courts need to be established, and if so, what function such courts should have. The starting point of the article is a comparison between the Swedish system and the system in the Australian state of Victoria, where specialized children’s courts deal with cases concerning child protection. Descriptions of both systems are given, put in an overall international context with regards to different legal traditions and the different approaches to specialized courts. Thereafter the two systems are compared with a special focus on judicial proceedings. By comparing the two systems, overall aspects of significant importance for the legitimacy of the child protection system as a whole are elucidated. These aspects are divided first into issues of more specific significance within child protection, i.e. a more defined analysis of the right to a fair trial, the impact of the principle of the best interest of the child and a child's right to be heard, as well as the requirements of a complete decisional basis in child protection cases. Second, issues concerning the role and function of the courts in the legal system as a whole are raised, including the distribution of power as set out and defined in politics, law and other fields. The article concludes with proposals for the current Swedish system.

16.

Leviner, Pernilla

Stockholm University, Faculty of Law, Department of Law, Stockholm Centre for the Rights of the Child.

An Analysis of Lvu-Supplies "Socially Degrading Behavior" in the Light of Hfd 2015 Ref. 7: Conditions for Disposing of Young Adults Due to Risk of Honor-Related Violence and Repression in Swedish Law

Caring for and placing children or young people outside of the home against the wishes of custodians and decision-minded children is one of the most interventive measures that the state can take through its responsible authorities. High demands must therefore be made on the legislator and on the applicant. Decisions in individual cases must be taken taking into account inter alia legality, objectivity and proportionality and the legislator must be sufficiently clear. The conditions for the preparation of compulsory childcare in Swedish law are given in law (1990: 52) with special provisions for the care of young people (LVU). Intervention may only occur in severe cases when voluntary measures are not possible or sufficient. It must be shown that the individual child / adolescent lives in misconduct, either linked to the home environment being very deficient and harmful and / or by the child or the adolescent showing his own destructive behavior which poses a significant risk of harm to the child's health or development. As regards home remedies (Section 2), they may only be taken and continued until the child is 18 years old, while care due to the young's own destructive behavior (Section 3) may commence until the child completes 20 years and ends by the age of 21 years (Section 1).

17.

Leviner, Pernilla

Stockholm University, Faculty of Law, Department of Law, Stockholm Centre for the Rights of the Child.

This dissertation addresses the responsibility of the Social Services as to protecting children from crimes and poor conditions in the home, and has as its starting point the requirements contained within the UN Child Convention as to a functioning societal child protection. This topic raises complex legal questions concerning fundamental rights for both children and parents. The objective here is to examine whether the Social Services has the legal premises necessary to live up to the responsibility as to protecting children. Included in this endeavor is in part investigating whether the construction of the regulations is appropriate in relation to the requirements of the Child Convention or whether there are legal impediments making it difficult to achieve protection of children, and also in part clarifying the function and effect of the regulations in their practical application.

This investigation demonstrates that the regulations place high objectives concerning a child's living conditions and requirements that children are to be protected from violence and vulnerability in their home, but that the Social Services are not given clear tools and authority to achieve these objectives. The Social Services are left with vague and uncertain legal tools and a strong emphasis on that investigations and responses are to be conducted in consultation with the persons having custody of the child. This leads to a legal practice in which the focus is rather on consultation with and motivating of parents than on investigating which children need support and protection. This situation is unsatisfactory from the perspectives of both a child and the parents, not in the least when taking into consideration requirements as to legal certainty.

This dissertation proposes an extensive review of the child protection regulations, in which the complexity entailing potential conflicting interests between a child and parents is raised. In order to strengthen a child's position and legal status, among other things, it is proposed that the Child Convention be incorporated into Swedish legislation, that increased requirements are placed as to a complete decisional basis as well as creating a clearer division between voluntariness and coercion, in which children are given increased possibilities to be represented by independent representatives during the child protection investigation.

21.

Leviner, Pernilla

Stockholm University, Faculty of Law, Department of Law, Stockholm Centre for the Rights of the Child.

This article analyses and discusses the Swedish more than 30 years old ban on corporal punishment and its effects. By describing the Swedish experiences – both positive outcomes and challenges that face the child protection system – valuable additional knowledge is provided for Australia and other countries that have not yet introduced a ban. It can be noted that a ban is required in order to fulfil the responsibilities in the UN Child Convention as pointed out by the UN Committee on the rights of the child. More importantly though, such a reform can be viewed as an essential departure from the out-dated approach which treats children as the property of their parents in favour of a rights based approach, in line with current way of thinking about children and their rights in the new millennium.

This chapter deals generally with the requirements of the Swedish welfare system regarding solidarity with children who grow up in Sweden without being a citizen of the country or without the right to settle here. In the light of theories of welfare state typologies and how different categories of welfare states handle migration, what the principles of equal treatment, equal treatment and non-discrimination in our legal order really mean and whether there are legal conditions for assessing and treating children differently based on degrees of (o) belonging.

28. Lindblad, Frank

et al.

Lainpelto, Katrin

Stockholm University, Faculty of Law, Department of Law, Stockholm Centre for the Rights of the Child.

The objective of this study was to analyse Swedish child sexual abuse cases from 1989 to 2004 characterised by the following: (1) conviction in first trial in a court of appeal; (2) the Supreme Court later accepted a petition for a new trial; and (3) acquittal in second trial in the same court of appeal (with new judges). The study was conducted to determine what criteria were used for evaluating psychological child-related information and how they were applied. Eight argument themes were identified in the reasoning of the courts: (1) ability to perceive, remember, and communicate about experiences in a reliable way; (2) influence before first forensic interview; (3) influence during forensic interview/s; (4) motives for disclosing/retracting; (5) statement characteristics; (6) disclosure process; (7) behaviour and/or emotions related to investigations/interviews; and (8) psychological symptoms. The arguing of the courts was classified as belonging to one of three categories for each argument theme: (1) supporting/challenging the allegations; (2) opposing a conceivably supportive/challenging argument; and (3) indifferent. In six of the nine cases, arguments belonging to the same theme were presented in both court proceedings. Diametrically opposite conclusions were reached in 15 of 20 of these examples and same conclusion in one case. The evaluation method/s seemingly underlying the child psychological arguments of the courts may have a low reliability.

A vital part of healthcare students’ education and medical preparation is to be exposed to a variety of health-related clinical settings. The students need the clinical education in order to gain knowledge and clinical reasoning skills to provide effective and safe healthcare services. Clinical healthcare education is consequently a critical component in delivering a competent and skilled future workforce. However, in some situations, students in their clinical training might refuse to participate in lawful healthcare and services that contradict their religion or beliefs, described here as conscientious objection in clinical healthcare education. In this paper, I will discuss whether healthcare professionals and students can ‘opt-out’ of participating in certain health related services and educational activities by referring to the protection of freedom of religion in the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The aim of this paper is to give a clarification of whether freedom of religion includes a right to conscientious objection or not and under which circumstances. As will be shown in the paper, conscientious objection in healthcare setting can, in certain situations, constitute a manifestation of religion and belief. Thus, the right to manifest and practise this freedom is not an absolute right and can be subject to limitations in accordance with international law. For that reason, it is concluded that the answer to the question of whether students should be permitted to “opt out” of educational requirement based on religious grounds depends upon the manner in which the conscientious objection affects the interest of others, such as patients, caregivers and other staff members. In this regard, the educational healthcare institutions need to balance the right of conscientious objection, not only with the interests in having future healthcare professionals with proper educational training and required skills, but also with the legal and ethical responsibilities of the profession.